I’ve spent decades dreaming about the perfect life. It’s about time I let myself have one.

Friday, 21 April 2017

Proms at the Cathedral

Our Easter break was very quiet, almost to
the point of uneventful. Much relaxing at home, some good food with a little bit of
traditional delicacies, a few films on TV, some walks on the downtown
riverfront – mostly by hubby on his own, but also some snowfall. In mid-April,
can you believe that?

The concert we attended at our local
church, the Turku Cathedral, on Easter Monday formed quite a surprising highlight
for the weekend. It was the young symphonic wind orchestra JBO YoungStars from Germany that was performing music from England,
Scotland and Ireland under the title ‘A Night on the Isles’. The show included rhythmic
arrangements ranging from pop classics, eg by Coldplay and The Beatles, to more
traditional songs and tunes.

What we didn’t expect was that the orchestra really took it the-last-night-of-the-proms style. The aisle and band area were
decorated with flags of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. There were Union
Jacks hanging from the gallery. The spectators were handed flags they could wave
just like in the real BBC Proms. The conductor Natalie Hönemann even put on a special
waistcoat for the final part of the concert. Had I known about all this I would
have taken my camera with me. There was nothing whatsoever to complain about
the most delightful event except perhaps the acoustics of the high medieval
stone Cathedral.

The story how the orchestra of youngsters happened
to come to Finland and Turku in the first place is a fascinating one. A girl
from here, while working as an au pair in Hanover, had played in the JBO
YoungStars during her stay in Germany. She now studies music in Tampere and had
invited the band for a visit. As the group arrived by ferry from Stockholm to
Turku a concert was naturally arranged also here before continuing to the girl’s
present home town where the orchestra performed last night.

I had a look at the
programme of The Last Night of the Proms 2017. Sakari Oramo, the Chief
Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra since 2013 and a Finn, will be holding
the baton once again. It’s going to be, among others, tributes to Zoltán Kodály
and Malcolm Sargent, who both died 50 year ago, some John Adams, and Finlandia by our greatest composer Jean Sibelius to mark the centenary year of Finnish
independence. It’s about time we revisited London so I just decided I will send
an application for tickets by the open ballot. I already marked September 9 on my
calendar. That way I will at least remember to glue myself to the TV that
night. But please, no snowfall that time.